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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25844836">Languages are Hard</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodFromTheThorn/pseuds/BloodFromTheThorn'>BloodFromTheThorn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Boys In Love, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Short &amp; Sweet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:02:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>783</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25844836</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodFromTheThorn/pseuds/BloodFromTheThorn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nicky had taken it upon himself to try and teach Nile some Italian, but she wasn't wholly sure his lessons were as effective as he thought they were.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>238</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Languages are Hard</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>All non-English words are the result of some careful googling, but I welcome any and all corrections. Gendered languages are hard :(</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“No, no, it’s like <em>this</em>,” Nicky interrupted, laughing, before repeating the string of incomprehensible syllables he’d been trying to teach her.</p>
<p>Caught somewhere between mild frustration and fierce amusement, Nile scowled at him. “That’s what I said!”</p>
<p>“It was not.”</p>
<p>“You’re going deaf in your old age. I repeated it exactly as you said it.” Slumped helplessly beside Nicky, Joe burst into another round of giggles, his eyes shining. Nile glared at him too. “You can shut it. I haven’t had a thousand years to practice this ridiculous language.”</p>
<p>“It’s just Italian,” Nicky said, faking offense that was roundly ignored.</p>
<p>Joe snorted. “Please don’t let me stop you <em>cara mia</em>. You’re doing far better than I ever did.”</p>
<p>“That’s true,” Nicky agreed instantly, nodding, then laughed when Joe retaliated by jabbing him sharply in the ribs. “It is true,” he protested. “You were <em>awful</em> with Italian in the beginning.”</p>
<p>“Like your Arabic was any better.” He rattled off a string of words that Nile supposed were hideously mispronounced; with her linguistic abilities still barely hovering above a single language, she mostly had to rely on context clues whenever any of the others dipped out of English. “I could have wept for how you butchered your words.”</p>
<p>They were both laughing, loose and easy in each other’s presence and Nile couldn’t help but smile at the pair of them. “So, if you couldn’t speak Arabic, and you couldn’t speak Italian,” she said, pointing to them in turn, “How did you communicate when you first met?”</p>
<p>Nicky snorted, ducking his head, while Joe rolled his eyes with exaggerated frustration. “Once we stopped trying to talk with our blades-”</p>
<p>“Which took a while,” Nicky put in.</p>
<p>“-It mostly involved a lot of pointing at things and speaking very slowly. I knew a bit of Latin which helped fill in a few gaps.”</p>
<p>“’Knew a bit of Latin’ he says,” Nicky said sourly, giving Nile a despairing look. “Don’t listen to him. His Latin was <em>appalling.</em> You probably know as much now as he did then.”</p>
<p>Nile didn’t even get the chance to refute the wild inaccuracy of that statement before Joe launched into a long string of what was almost certainly protests, but was said so quickly that Nile couldn’t even be sure what language he was speaking. Knowing the pair of them, it was a mash-up of several.</p>
<p>Snickering, Nicky threaded his arm over Joe’s shoulders and pulled him in tight to his side. “Forgive my teasing <em>habibi</em>. I do not mean it.”</p>
<p>Joe, trying to look upset and failing miserably, tucked as he was into the curve of Nicky’s body, huffed at him. “At least I proved a better teacher than a student,” he said, cutting a smug grin at Nile. “I had him speaking flawless Arabic inside of a year.”</p>
<p>“Flawless might be an exaggeration.”</p>
<p>They both snickered, their eyes fond. “Maybe to others,” Joe allowed easily. “But it was flawless to me. The moment I first heard you call me <em>habibi</em> I thought that the language must have developed over a thousand years just so that I could have the chance to hear you speak it.”</p>
<p>They were getting that sappy look they shared which usually told Nile she should get the hell out of dodge before things got uncomfortable. Joe and Nicky made no secret of their love and she would never, ever ask them to but at the same time, there were only so many times in a single day she could watch them kissing and sweet talking before she feared falling in love with them herself in some weird form of Stockholm syndrome.</p>
<p>“I think that’s my cue,” she said lightly, pushing her chair out from the table with a poorly hidden smile.</p>
<p>The pair of them broke off from staring into each other’s eyes to blink at her in surprise. “But we haven’t finished your lesson,” Nicky pointed out.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure I’m ready for Italian just yet,” she replied, shrugging. “I’m getting somewhere with French – probably better sticking to that until I’ve at least got the basics.”</p>
<p>Joe smiled warmly. “That’s a good idea. Trust me, once you’ve got at least two languages to work with, it gets much, much easier.”</p>
<p>“I’ll take your word for it. Thanks for trying all the same.”</p>
<p>“Of course. We’re always here to help.”</p>
<p>She left them sitting at the kitchen table, wrapped up in each other’s happiness and talking softly in a blend of ancient languages that was entirely their own. Immortality might have been a life-ending development for Nile, but she’d found something too. And facing the future felt that much easier with her new family by her side.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yes, Booker is 100% teaching Nile French via Zoom or some shit while he's in exile. Nile refuses to apologise for it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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